"An Oni? In South Dakota?" Bobby leafed through his oldest texts, shaking his head. "They're bound to Japanese territories - manifestations of that land's spiritual energy. They can't just cross oceans."
I sat quietly in Bobby's study, watching Dean pace. The cross at his neck still gleamed faintly, though he hadn't noticed. My mind kept returning to the Oni's words, to how it had named what my brother was meant to be.
Mikael no utsuwa.
"Mitchell's house was covered in Eastern symbols," Dad spread photos across Bobby's desk. "Nothing like the usual occult markings we encounter."
"Because they shouldn't exist here," Bobby pulled another leather-bound volume from his shelf. "Something's very wrong about all this."
Dean paused by the window. "It reacted to the blessed iron. And to..." his hand drifted to his cross.
"I've never seen blessed weapons have that effect before," Dad's voice held a note of concern I rarely heard.
I kept my eyes on my book, mind racing. The Oni hadn't just crossed an ocean - it had recognized what Heaven was preparing Dean to be. Which meant the natural order was already shifting.
"Found something," Bobby's voice cut through the tension. "Record from 1923 - a hunter in California encountered an Oni after investigating a Japanese immigrant's death. But that was near the coast, near a Japanese community. This..." he gestured at the photos, "this is different."
"Mitchell had no connection to Japan," Dad confirmed. "Complete background check shows he never left South Dakota."
"Then how'd he know these symbols?" Dean leaned over the photos. "They're too precise to be copied randomly."
I studied the images from my corner. The markings were indeed perfect - not the work of someone who'd simply found them in a book. They held power, even in photograph form.
"Sam?" Bobby caught me looking. "You've been quiet."
Because I was trying to figure out how this fit into everything I knew was coming. An Oni shouldn't have this knowledge, shouldn't be able to sense what Dean and I were meant to be.
"The symbols," I said carefully. "They're not just summoning marks. They look more like... anchors."
Dad's head snapped up. "Anchors?"
"Like it needed something to hold it here. Outside its territory."
Bobby pulled out another book, older than the rest. "Kid's right. These aren't just summoning circles - they're binding points. Mitchell wasn't just calling something, he was trying to trap it."
"But why an Oni?" Dean asked. "Why not something local?"
I had a terrible feeling I knew why. Some creatures could see more than others. Some were old enough to recognize the signs of what was coming.
"There's something else," Bobby said, pulling out a file. "Mitchell wasn't the first unexplained death in that house. In 1945, the previous owner disappeared after reportedly acquiring 'artifacts' from a Japanese-American internment camp auction."
"So the connection to Japan goes back further," Dad mused.
"And Mitchell probably found whatever the previous owner left behind," Dean added.
I watched the adults piece it together, but my mind was on the Oni's words. An ancient Japanese demon shouldn't know about Michael's vessel. Unless...
"Bobby," I spoke up, "what exactly do Oni traditionally do?"
"Besides causing havoc?" Bobby adjusted his cap. "They're watchers, mostly. Ancient spirits that guard territories and..." he paused, something occurring to him. "And observe. They're known for recognizing power in humans. Spiritual power."
Dean's cross caught the lamplight. "Is that why it reacted to the blessed weapons?"
"Maybe," Bobby said, but his eyes found me. "But that doesn't explain why it crossed an ocean. Unless..."
"Unless it was looking for something," Dad finished.
The room fell silent as implications settled. An ancient observer, drawn across the world, recognizing things it shouldn't know about.
"We need to go back," Dad decided. "Find whatever Mitchell found, whatever drew it here."
"Not tonight," Bobby countered. "Not until we know more about what we're dealing with."
I caught Dean studying his reflection in the window, his hand absently touching his cross. He looked troubled, like he was trying to remember something just out of reach.
The Oni's words echoed in my memory. It hadn't just named what Dean was - it had sounded pleased. Like it had found exactly what it was searching for.
Which meant others might start looking too.
We had to find what Mitchell discovered. Had to understand why a creature from Japanese lore knew about vessels - besides the obvious.
The pagans of course would know about Vessels that will exist, the episode of with the whole so called gods squad, made that clear enough. But how did it know specifically that Dean and I were the ones?
What texts or artifacts could have given it this knowledge?
"Wait," Bobby suddenly stated as he hastily flipped back the pages.
"The California case," Bobby mumbled out in what seemed like understanding as he pulled out yellowed papers, "the hunter described the Oni as 'unusually interested' in certain bloodlines. Said it kept muttering about 'vessels of power' before they managed to banish it."
That made my heart skip. Bloodlines. Vessels. Even back then, they were watching.
"What happened to the hunter's notes?" Dad asked.
"Lost in a fire in '54. All we have is this report summary." Bobby tapped the paper. "But here's the interesting part - the Japanese family the Oni was watching? They disappeared. Whole bloodline, just... gone."
Dean shifted uncomfortably. "You think Mitchell found something about bloodlines? About... people with power?"
"Mitchell was researching family histories," Bobby confirmed. "Found these in his desk." He spread out more papers - genealogy charts, birth records, death certificates. "Man was obsessed with certain families. Including ones that passed through those internment camps."
I studied the papers carefully. Had Mitchell somehow traced the vessel bloodlines? Found some way to identify them?
"There's more," Bobby pulled out an old journal. "Mitchell's last entry. Says he 'found the markers.' That he could 'see the chosen ones now.'"
The room felt colder. Dean's cross pulsed faintly.
"Chosen for what?" Dad asked.
I kept my eyes down, knowing exactly what Mitchell had discovered. Knowing why the Oni had crossed an ocean to find us.
"That's what we need to find out," Bobby said grimly. "Before whatever Mitchell found falls into the wrong hands."
'Before something else came looking' I added in my mind.
Before Heaven and Hell realized their chosen vessels were already being noticed by the supernatural world.
Dean caught my eye in the window's reflection, and for a moment, I could have sworn his cross pulsed in response to my thoughts.
Time was not on our side here.